The chamber was cold.
A thin fog coiled around the crystal slab in the center, where the girl lay still. Her skin was pale as snow, her hair a strange shimmer between silver and violet. Her eyes were closed—but behind those lids, her soul trembled.
Above her, the Awakening Sigil pulsed faintly.
Dozens of mages stood in a circle around the room, robed in black, white, and gold. At the center stood an old man with white hair braided in silver runes. His name was Aram Thorne—Grand Seer of the Inner Sanctum.
"She's still resisting," one of the high-ranked mages whispered.
"She has to," Aram replied. "The seal she carries isn't natural. It doesn't belong to this world."
At the center of the slab, the girl's fingers twitched. A surge of ice spread across the crystal, cracking it slightly.
Aram stepped forward. "Child of unknown fate… it's time."
He raised his staff, and the Sigil above responded with a low hum. Energy poured down in streams of silver, touching her forehead. Her body convulsed, then slowly arched upward as her eyes opened—
And everything stopped.
Not just the chanting. Not just the wind. Even time itself hesitated.
Her eyes were hollow. Not empty—but bound. They shimmered with mirrored reflections of places not in this world. Stars that never existed. Shadows that hadn't yet formed. Her lips parted.
Then she screamed.
The crystal slab shattered beneath her. The mages recoiled as the blast of frost and darklight surged outward. The girl floated in the air, her hair lifting, her arms spreading wide like wings.
Aram stepped forward, his expression unreadable. "It's awakening," he whispered.
The girl's aura flickered rapidly. One moment ice. The next, darkness. Then wind, then fire, then nothing at all.
From the corner of the sanctum, a hidden observer watched in silence. A robed figure, his face mostly concealed, though a crescent-shaped scar was barely visible under his left eye.
"She's not ready," he murmured.
Aram turned toward him. "Then prepare her. She is connected to the boy."
The figure frowned. "Isaac?"
Aram nodded. "The Lost Brother of Space and Soul. Her existence will awaken his purpose. But if we fail to guide her, she will not save him."
"She will destroy him."
The robed man vanished into shadow.
Back at the center of the chamber, the girl floated down gently, her bare feet touching the broken slab. Her eyes were still glowing, but tears now ran down her cheeks.
"Where… am I?" she whispered, her voice brittle.
Aram stepped forward, kneeling slightly. "You are in Atlan, child. And your name… is Aethra."
"Aethra," she repeated, confused.
"Yes," he said. "Your awakening has just begun. And fate has already started moving toward the Nephalem."
---